I kegged my first all grain yesterday and would appreciate it if someone could help me calculate my efficiency. I brewed EdWort's Haus Pale Ale exactly per his recipe (8# 2-row, 2# Vienna, 0.5# Crystal 10). OG / FG per the recipe is 1.051 / 1.011.

I was shooting for 6.5 gallons in the kettle but wound up with only 6.25 gallons. My PRE-boil OG was 1.053 (adjusted). I brewed outside and wound up boiling off 1.5 gallons and got 4.75 gallons in the fermenter (I dumped the entire contents of my kettle into the fermenter). My adjusted POST-boil OG was 1.062.

I don't have BeerSmith (yet) and I'm unclear how to calculate efficiency by hand. Could someone help me out?

Also, I used a crappy thermometer (Thermapen in the mail!) so my mash temp may have been off. I fermented with Notty and measured my FG at 1.010. If I am calculating this correctly, that is an 83% apparent attenuation, which leads me to believe I mashed on the low side of the range.

Efficiency calculations are finicky though. You have to have very accurate measurements of ur grain, volumes, temps, and gravities in order to get a proper calculation. Rough estimates will get you a rough cut, but take as good notes as you can with accurate measurements to be sure.

one thing you have to watch when adjusting your gravity readings with a correction temp chart, is that if the sample is over 100*F, the correction readings can be off.

when you had too much evaporation, you could dilute the 4.5 gal to five with filtered top off water to get close to the targeted OG.

notty can reach mid 80's in attenuation normally If you use enough, and it is fresh, so it may not be that your thermometer is that far off.

Best thing to do is buy yourself a good certified calibrated lab grade thermometer. Use it for checking accuracy of your cheaper brewing thermometers at the specific temperatures they are being used at.